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On This Date in Sports October 18, 1968: A Giant Leap Forward

In collaboration with the Sportsecyclopedia.com

American Bob Beamon jumps nearly to the moon as he sets a new World Record in the Long Jump. Landing a jump of 29 feet 2.5 inches, (officially 8.90 meters) at the Mexico City Olympics. Bob Beamon broke the previous record shared by American Ralph Boston and Soviet Igor Ter-Ovanesyan by an astonishing 22 and a half inches. The record-shattering leap forward was so impressive it gave birth to a new word Beamonesque.

Bob Beamon was born August 29, 1946, in Queens, New York. Beamon began to take up track and field while at Jamaica High School, becoming one of the top athletes in New York City. After starting at North Carolina A&T, Beamon’s career began to take off when he transferred to Texas Western as it was renamed UTEP. At the time it was growing, UTEP became one of the top track programs in the NCAA. Just before the Olympics, Beamon, however, lost his scholarship when he refused to play against Brigham Young over their racial policies.

Without a coach, due to his protest of BYU, Bob Beamon was mentored Ralph Boston, who had won the Long Jump Gold Medal at the 1960 Olympics in Rome and shared the World Record with Igor Ter-Ovanesyan. Leading into the Olympics, Beamon had become one of the World’s top long jumpers, winning 22 of 23 meets. Prior to setting the record, Bob Beamon was struggling in Mexico City, as he fouled on his first two qualifying jumps and needed to make a clutch jump just to make the final.

In the final, with storm clouds rolling in, Bob Beamon in a scene that may have looked like the plot of a Hollywood movie ran down the runway and made the perfect launch as if he were weightless, Beamon landed further than installed measuring device, leading officials to bring out a tape measure to record the official distance. The number read 8.90 meters, or 29 feet 2.5 inches bettering the old record by nearly 23 inches. After realizing, what he had just done collapsed to his knees and had to be helped back up because of the of the enormity of the jump. A rainstorm rolled in making it impossible to top Beamon’s jump as Klaus Beer of East Germany finished second at 8.19 meters, while mentor Ralph Boston got the Bronze Medal with a jump of 8.16.

Some try to diminish the jump, saying that Bob Beamon was aided by the wind, which at two miles per second was at the limit, to not carry an asterisk for being wind-aided. Some even suggested the altitude help as well, as Mexico City’s elevation of 7,350 is the highest in Olympic history. However, none of the other competitors came close to what Beamon, did in breaking the old mark by 22 and inches. This gave birth to the term Beamonesuqe when a new record is topped by a wide margin. Bob Beamon’s record would stand for 23 years before it was topped by American Mike Powell in the 1991 World Championships in Tokyo. Beamon’s jump, however, remains the Olympic record as well as the second-longest long jump ever recorded in competition.